You should have 'one for your husband, one for your wife, and one for your country' - so declared the Australian treasurer Peter Costello, himself a father of three. To encourage this, last year the Australian government introduced a non-means-tested gift of $3,000 (1,200) made to parents for every newborn, rising to $5,000 by 2008.
This year France also made a bid to encourage middle-class French mothers to enlarge their family when it brought in monthly payments of up to (1,000 (675) for mothers who take a year's unpaid leave after the birth of a third child. The previous grant of (512 was viewed as too low to encourage higher paid women to take time off.
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